Parish Council News

New Council
The parish council elections saw a 60% turnout which is very high compared to the local elections which averaged at around 30%. Thank you to those who voted.
Election of Chair: The chair stays with John Davies.
Rôles and responsibilities
John: cemetery and traffic calming;
Adrian/Matt: Footpaths, lighting, drains and ditches, street furniture;
Corinne: community liaison;
Emily: Neighbourhood Plan lead;
Mirrin: Community Spaces, website/social;
Sue: Cemetery.
New Clerk
Firstly, thank you to Jo Wain for bridging the gap and acting as our clerk for the last six months. We are very grateful and wish her all the very best. We welcome our new clerk, Ian Wilson: new to Gaydon, but not new to the rôle. He is contactable on the same email address: gaydonpc@gmail.com
Planning
The latest retrospective application from the Esso Garage has been refused.
Neighbourhood Plan
We are still appealing for volunteers to support this crucial village project. If Gaydon is to be in control of its own future we will need to get started on the Neighbourhood Plan now. This will be how our village as we know it now, or as we envisage it to be, can be preserved and protected. Anyone can help, from delivering surveys to helping to organise events. Please email eleadbetter.gpc@gmail.com
Bins, Dogs and Poo
Please pick up after your poo-ch! Adrian has moved one of the bins from Church Road to the Banbury Road so that there's a better distribution of bins now. You can use any bin to dispose of your dog's do do: poo bin, bin bin, bin poo - thank you!
Travellers
This last visit, although shorter, was just as unpleasant as the previous one. GPC are taking this very seriously and hope to devise a deterrent for the future.
Defib training
There will be further training later in June, date to be publicised.
Next meeting
Tuesday, 4 June, at 7.30pm in the Village Hall.

Gaydon Village Fête

Saturday 15 June 1.30 pm on Church Field
Volunteers are needed for leafleting, running stalls and setting up in the morning.
Donations needed include plants and produce, bottles for tombola, books and white elephants.
There will be Games for all the family: coconut shy, welly wanging,
hook-a-duck and more!
We'll have a Barbecue and a Cake stall; Face painting; Fun Dog Show
and a small selection of Craft Stalls from local businesses: and a
Bee Observation Hive.
Car parking available in the forecourt of the old MOT garage on main road.
In the next two weeks look out for information posted on social media and a timetable for collection of donations.
The fête will be run by the Millennium Group with support from the Church, Village Hall Committee and KOG. Debbie Price
Please support this latest event for the whole village to participate in!

Gaydon Village Hall News

The Big Lunch will take place at the village hall on Sunday, 14 July, at 1pm. Please bring some food to share; if the weather's not too bad we'll get the barbie out and sit in the front garden. Some drinks will be provided by the Hall but feel free to bring what you like. There wil be games for the children.

British Motor Museum

Volunteering Opportunity
Are you a 'people person' who enjoys engaging and presenting to people? The British Motor Museum is looking for Outreach Volunteers to help deliver presentations and object handling sessions to local community groups such as Probus, WI, youth groups, dementia groups and local car clubs.
Full training will be given and whilst an interest in cars and the motor industry is useful it is certainly not essential. Hours and timings will vary according to when the community groups book, but if you have a few spare hours a week, or even a month, and would like to find out
more, then visit:
www.britishmotormuseum.co.uk/about-us/get-involved/current-vacancies
or contact Sonja Dosanjh, Volunteer Co-Ordinator 01926 927820
or email volunteers@britishmotormuseum.co.uk

Gaydon Youth Night

Many thanks to everyone who turned up at the experimental youth club on Friday 10 May. It seemed to be a great success with plenty of helpers and most importantly lots of 'youth'! Most of the young people who came and enjoyed the games and activities and tuck shop appear on this month's cover. Fame at last!

Allotment News: 'Water, water... everywhere (?)'

'Nor any drop to drink...' When the Ancient Mariner was experiencing a simultaneous excess of water and an agonising thirst, he couldn't even find the release his dead ship-mates had found. He was condemned to tell his tale for evermore to all who would listen (even at a wedding!), because of his wanton transgression of nature in casually killing an albatross. Sometimes gardeners and allotmenteers feel they have an albatross around their necks as they gaze at the sky! Water excess or drought with no happy medium is the recurrent nightmare for anyone who's trowelling and teasing plants into maturity.
Without mains water on the plot, we try to apply ingenuity and practical experience to gather and conserve as much as we can, while simultaneously trying to improve moisture retention.
Water butts and containers are strategically placed to gather the precious stuff both on and off the plot (thanks Adrian and Malt Shovel for your assistance). The (previously celebrated!) cardboard and wood chips and re-cycled carpet have helped the cause of suppressing water loss. Although, in the latter's case, while it does the job, we want to replace these - as much for aesthetic reasons - with more natural and compostable coverings.
As it's the first full season for most of us on the allotment, we can't discuss if there's a climatic pattern, weather and water-wise, but the 'pioneers' (take a bow, Bernard and Debbie!) have - so far - had good cropping over the years on their plot. Predictions can be difficult about the effect of climate change: warmer temperatures over our oceans can create increased evaporation and consequently heavier rainfall rather than the drier Mediterranean or desert conditions people anticipate from a hotter climate. Personally, I'm an optimist that humans, on the whole, have used their intelligence and skills to cope with change and altered their behaviour to survive, but with one caution - sometimes individuals with leadership and responsibilities for whole societies can make impulsive responses which are irrational and potentially catastrophic. A bit like the Ancient Mariner. 'There was a ship...' (Oh, there he goes again!)
Water Ways
When W.S. with his
'Hey-ho, the wind and the rain...'
sighed with dismay
he also knew the nectar
of moist sips on baking afternoons.
Britain in the temperamental zone:
sometimes the North Atlantic parks above us
sometimes it's clear to the stars -
too much water
or none.
We wait for a drop
of the climatic dice:
two sixes
or snake eyes...
Time to change the game? Tony Hughes

Mobile Library

The Library will visit the Telephone Box at Gaydon from 1.35-2.05pm on Mondays 3rd and 24th June.

Friendship Club

The next meeting will be on Tuesday 4 June at 2.30pm at the home of Olive Richards, Almeley Chase, Kineton Road.

Coffee Morning

Saturday 8 June at 11am at the Village Hall. Bring and buy, Raffle, Bookstall. Coffee and biscuits 50p in aid of St Giles' Church.

Gaydon Village Store

Congratulations to Gwyneth Comben who is the lucky recipient of a voucher for Compton Verney Art Gallery and Park. Many thanks to Compton Verney for their generosity.
You can still join the membership scheme if you would like to, forms are available from the shop.
On another note, we would be very grateful for more volunteers, particularly in the summer time. People are off on their holidays and so we find it difficult to fill the rota and keep the shop open for you.
If you would like to know more about volunteering, just leave your contact details at the shop and we will be in touch. Please continue to support your shop. Enjoy the summer!

Rest in Peace in the Cemetery

When you are walking your dogs in the cemetery, please respect the living and the dead by keeping your dogs under control when people are tending the graves.

Pop-up Cafe

Tuesday 11 June at 11am. Roundwood School's Delicious pop up Cafe at Gaydon Village Hall.

Nature Notes for May

May is one of my favourite months as there's a purity and freshness about the unblemished greenery in trees and hedgerow; and although spring flowers are on the wane, the verdant mottled cover more than compensates and leaves are as yet unblemished by larvae attacks and discolouration. The Cowslip, a particular favourite of mine, still glows in the meadows and there are spectacularly huge colonies on the banks of the nearby M40; a good example of how this species has come back after years of chemical spraying which has finally ended.
The dainty Orange-tip butterfly emerges at this time of year but only the males have these markings. I discovered as a child that the eggs are bright orange too, laid on the stems of Lady's Smock which grows on our churchyard. I recall that the caterpillars were as elegant as the stems. Another early species is the Holly Blue, a vivid blue butterfly, very small and fast-flying that is sure to visit your gardens.
The warmer, blue sky days encourage many species to emerge. Quite my rarest find is a Violet Oil Beetle: a spectacular beetle with a jewel-like irridescence of purple and blue. I was rather transfixed by its beauty and rarity and realised I knew nothing about it. The clue came from an old book 'British Coleoptera' revealing a life cycle living in the nests of Mason bees. And there it was, crawling underneath the site of our famous Bee Hotel on the back wall of the shop. Our valuable habitat has a parasitic visitor! What a fascinating little enclave in the village - long may it survive!
You enter the field behind the church and there is a large dense thicket of Bramble that has grown over an ancient heap of scrap. This again is a great habitat for many nesting birds and protection into which they can retreat from Sparrow Hawks and Crows. There are always many Sparrows perched there on the peripheral parts along with gold finches and warblers. The 'tidying up ' and industrial methods used now in the countryside so easily forget that the odd heap of spilled grain, old dew pond or field margin are important retreats and food sources for our declining Wildlife.
I picked up quite a few Great crested newts this year and am glad to hear that they have returned to people's gardens. I'm also glad to hear that those poisonous blue slug pellets have been banned and the first Swifts and Swallows have returned in small numbers. It was delightful to see pictures of Hares on the village website. You can still hear Skylarks but where are our Cuckoos?
In June I'm on an 'expedition' to seek out rare orchids in the Scottish Highlands and hope to visit the Wolf/Beaver reintroduction centres whilst there. Our local Orchids are worth checking for soon, e.g. Early Purple and Bee. Let me know if you spot any! BP

Obituary

'We are sorry to advise that that John Goldsmith (Dad) passed away peacefully on 29th April 2019. John's health had deteriorated in recent weeks while under the excellent care of staff at Castle Brook Care Home in Kenilworth. He will be greatly missed. Nigel, Mark, Elizabeth and David Goldsmith.'
John Ernest Goldsmith
7 May 1936 - 29 April 2019
The funeral took place at 10am on 28 May at St Giles' Church Gaydon, followed by a final service at Oakley Wood Crematorium. The services were conducted by the Reverend Nicki Chatterton. The family invited mourners to join them afterwards at The Granville in Barford to carry on sharing memories of John.

Concert in Church

Sunday 23 June at 2.30pm. Morgan and Hotchkiss in Concert! You are invited to come to a concert of organ music in St Giles' Church, Gaydon, on the afternoon of Sunday 23 June. Further information available on 642248.

Fenny Compton Open Gardens 22nd & 23rd of June

Saturday 22nd Open Gardens 10am-5pm £5 per adult (over 16) includes Open Gardens around the village combined with a Front Garden Trail plus a Children's Bee-spotting trail; also a small village show at Contone Barn, free entry.
Sunday 23rd Open Gardens and Trails 10am till 5pm. Refreshments at the Village hall on both days from 10.30am onwards.

Concert in All Saints' Church Burton Dassett

Warwick University Brass Society on Friday 21 June at 7.30pm. Tickets £10 from Norma King on 01295 770292.
In Aid of Toilets and Taps and Fenny Compton church roof